Elevated Bridge B/C

[Greg Doe]

I have both boron and a "ton" of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber comes in tow (which is simply a bundle
of continuous fibers), woven fabric, and sheet material, which is carbon fiber with a bonding material. There are several other combinations of carbon fiber including pre-preg which has to be stored at very cold temperatures. Carbon is used in similar applications as you would use fiberglass,
but want lighter weight and greater strength. All the carbon I have seen is black, and by the way, a lot of it is now made in China. For all you will ever want to know about carbon fiber try Googling it.
Two sources are Composit Structures and Fiber Glast Products.
Boron is some nasty stuff. Very brittle. Gray in color
Obviously the way to conceal these ILLEGAL materials is to lamanate them between two pieces
of wood.
Are people cheating? I doubt it. It's not worth the risk of being caught. Could it be done? Probably.
But why put all that work into something that's illegal (because it would still require a lot of work)
instead of applying your energy to something that's legal.
If someone openly used some non-approved material, they would be second teired. If someone
CONCEILED non-approved material, they should be disqualified, and banned for cheating.
If you have seen my previous posting you may recognize me as the coach of the first and second
place teams for the B division at our state competition. Both bridges broke. First was something over
1400, sorry I don't remember the exact score!
Greg Doe
Smyrna,TN

[nejanimb]

Also, I have to say, especially after seeing most of the top bridges... those scores do not seem at all impossible or even unlikely. Impressive, to be sure, but it's clearly doable. Nothing was so outstanding as to seem suspicious.

[sewforlife]

And sewforlife... that stinks. Do you have to do as they say? . Stick to EBs... Though, really, any kind of balsa building - particularly bridge building - will give you good practice that you'll be able to apply to the actual event once the proper rules come out.

I'm pretty sure I'll practice and test out some EB bridges over the summer as well as the old rules, if I'm up to it.

[sewforlife]

Would it be better to experiment different support designs for the 2006-07 bridge rules (what I did this year) or use off the text book designs (Warren, Pratt, etc.)

[nejanimb]

For triple load bridges? There are many different successful strategies. I posted one in the image gallery that is passable.

I'm curious though - I know Balsa Man had said they had a really good bridge that year. Balsa Man, would you mind describing and/or posting pictures of that year's design? I know I'm at least very curious.

[sewforlife]

For triple load bridges? There are many different successful strategies. I posted one in the image gallery that is passable.

I'm curious though - I know Balsa Man had said they had a really good bridge that year. Balsa Man, would you mind describing and/or posting pictures of that year's design? I know I'm at least very curious.

That goes for me too. What was the efficiency of that bridge again?

[nejanimb]

The one in the image gallery was approximately 1300, which was decent for that year's rules.

[sewforlife]

The one in the image gallery was approximately 1300, which was decent for that year's rules.

oh. sorry, I meant for Balsa Man's

[sewforlife]

Was this the picture of your triple load bridge: http://gallery.scioly.org/details.php?image_id=1141 ?

[smartkid222]

Was this the picture of your triple load bridge: http://gallery.scioly.org/details.php?image_id=1141 ?

that was someone's triple load bridge
balsa man has his own subgallery http://gallery.scioly.org/categories.php?cat_id=39